Oral environment, inflammation and preterm birth

Adverse obstetric outcomes are determinants of neonatal mortality and serious morbidity, often leading to neurologic and developmental alterations in early childhood and/or adult life. Several studies have focused the relationships between maternal inflammation and diseases and those conditions. The role of oral inflammation and gingival diseases as factors with potential maternal and fetal detrimental effects on the outcomes of pregnancy is a relatively new area of investigation that has attracted a lot of interest and research in the last twenty years. The new evidences now strongly support a role for maternal infection and inflammation of the genital tract, as well as inflammation from sites distant from the pelvis, in the etiology of preterm birth. The aim of the present paper is to outline and summarize the current knowledge about the relations between oral biofilms, periodontal inflammation and the pathogenic mechanisms linking periodontal diseases with adverse pregnancy outcomes, concluding with some practical advices for clinicians on the prevention and control of the oral inflammation and the related adverse outcomes in pregnant patients.